Emeli Sande’s debut Our Version of Events was the biggest selling album of 2012 with 1.4 million copies sold, new figures show.
Official Charts Company figures, released by the BPI, revealed that the singer songwriter’s first album was one of 16 to sell more than 100,000 digital copies - Adele and Ed Sheeran were the second and third biggest sellers respectively.
These high sales came as digital albums increased in popularity in the UK - digital sales increased by almost 15 percent to hit 30.5 million in 2012, according to the statistics.
However, the figures also showed that the increase in digital activity was not enough to make up for a decline in CD sales - the market for CD albums shrunk by a fifth and led to total UK album sales falling by more than ten percent.
Geoff Taylor, BPI Chief Executive, said: ‘2012 was an encouraging year for UK artists and for music’s digital future. Digital albums grew strongly and singles sales hit a new record. Music fans are now streaming billions of songs from new services enabled by record labels.
‘The quality of our music and digital innovation by UK labels means we have excellent potential for domestic growth and to increase our share of the global music market.’
The statistics showed that British music fans are now streaming more music than ever - audio tracks were streamed more than 3.7 billion times in 2012, which is the equivalent of 140 streams for every household in the UK.
Elsewhere, the UK singles market showed strong growth in 2012 - total singles sales increased by six percent to 188.6 million in 2012.
The top 20 best-selling singles of 2012 sold more than 500,000 copies each.
Official Charts Company figures, released by the BPI, revealed that the singer songwriter’s first album was one of 16 to sell more than 100,000 digital copies - Adele and Ed Sheeran were the second and third biggest sellers respectively.
These high sales came as digital albums increased in popularity in the UK - digital sales increased by almost 15 percent to hit 30.5 million in 2012, according to the statistics.
However, the figures also showed that the increase in digital activity was not enough to make up for a decline in CD sales - the market for CD albums shrunk by a fifth and led to total UK album sales falling by more than ten percent.
Geoff Taylor, BPI Chief Executive, said: ‘2012 was an encouraging year for UK artists and for music’s digital future. Digital albums grew strongly and singles sales hit a new record. Music fans are now streaming billions of songs from new services enabled by record labels.
‘The quality of our music and digital innovation by UK labels means we have excellent potential for domestic growth and to increase our share of the global music market.’
The statistics showed that British music fans are now streaming more music than ever - audio tracks were streamed more than 3.7 billion times in 2012, which is the equivalent of 140 streams for every household in the UK.
Elsewhere, the UK singles market showed strong growth in 2012 - total singles sales increased by six percent to 188.6 million in 2012.
The top 20 best-selling singles of 2012 sold more than 500,000 copies each.
